Hoover Institution, (Stanford, CA) — To celebrate America’s veterans this November 11, Battlegrounds, hosted by Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster, will release two episodes exploring how America’s warriors can thrive in new careers after they leave active duty and serve our nation in other ways.
Supporting Veterans through Mental Health Challenges
In the first episode, which aired Tuesday, McMaster speaks with Dr. Alta DeRoo, chief medical officer at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, along with psychologist Don Elverd, about helping veterans of the US armed forces confront and overcome addictions or past trauma, draw on their training and experiences, and grow into stronger individuals.
DeRoo, a former naval aviator, tells McMaster treatment for addiction or trauma has become a wrap-around effort, involving medication, counselling, and the individual’s wider community.
“The resilience and teamwork and the strength we’ve accumulated through our military service really is a protective factor,” DeRoo tells McMaster. “I love the fact that you’re pointing out that PTSD is not something that’s going to make somebody fragile for life.”
Elverd, who himself was wounded fighting in Vietnam in 1968, describes to McMaster that part of his treatment approach is to counsel veterans by using skills developed in military training to overcome the challenge of addiction and pursue a path of recovery.
“In working with veterans, I will work with one and they will say, ‘Well, I’ve never been in combat,’ and I will say, ‘Wrong, you are in combat now; you’re in the weirdest combat of all,’” Elverd explains. “And some of the things you learned in the military can help you in terms of recovering from this combat.”
McMaster agreed, adding that the value of stoicism is often overlooked in helping veterans overcome traumatic experiences.
“You need a mild form of stoicism,” McMaster said. “Not extreme stoicism, where you wring out your emotions, but you have to embrace your emotions, understand the emotions of others.”
Helping Veterans Embark on a New Career
In the second episode, airing Thursday, November 14, McMaster speaks with Bethany Coates, CEO and Founder of BreakLine, a social venture dedicated to helping women, people of color, those experiencing disability, and veterans start or advance a new career.
Coates, whose background includes service as assistant dean for global innovation programs at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, says that experience taught her that “the largest engine fueling the American dream today is our education system.”
But utilizing that engine is costly, with many graduate degrees at top institutions costing several hundred thousand dollars, an expense that many veterans exiting the military cannot afford. For Coates, BreakLine’s objective is to offer free support to enhance veterans’ skill sets in ways they never thought were possible without going back to school.
Listen to the episodes here.
